Travel service providers are now all providing on-line booking services under the form of travel sites accessible on the Internet through its most spread application, i.e., the world-wide-web or Web. Customers that want to book flights, trains, rental cars and other travel-related services need only to access the appropriate travel Web sites directly, from their computer running a Web browser software application, or through a third party such as a travel agent acting on their behalf.
In the airline industry the process of selecting flights is adversely impacted by the complex fare structure put in place over years by airlines in an attempt to stay profitable in a highly competitive business. In short, those that need to be flexible, e.g., business travelers, are charged more than those that are willing to accept restrictions even though both types of travelers eventually may share seats of the same plane cabin. Hence, low fares often have requirements like advance purchase, imply a connection, or assume to have to travel at an inconvenient time of day. There is no such a thing as a single price airlines can charge for a seat while remaining profitable. Indeed, either the price would be too high and the airline would not find enough passengers to fill its planes, or planes would be full but the airline would not cover its operational expenses.
To this end, airline fare structures most often distinguish one-way fares from roundtrip fares. One-way fares are simpler since they are easily combinable. They can be considered on specific markets such that the domestic or regional markets of a national airline. However, international fares have to be compliant with international rules (advance purchase, minimum stay, seasonability). This makes one-way combinable fares not applicable for world-wide routes.
In the case of one-way fares the graphical interface that is proposed to the end-user of a travel site, i.e., the customer accessing it directly from the Web browser of its computer, or through the corresponding software application of a travel agent, is of the type as shown (100) in FIG. 1. In this particular example of a one-way display, departing (outbound) flights and returning (inbound) flights occupy respectively the upper panel (101) and lower panel (102) of the displayed page (100). Alternatively, panels may be displayed independently. All possibilities for the dates selected by the customer are listed with their corresponding fares where applicable. The chief characteristic of this kind of display is that the customer has the freedom of combining any outbound flight with any inbound flight even if they do not belong to the same fare category (104). The roundtrip fare is obviously just the sum of the two.
Many fares are published by airlines as roundtrip fares though. To attract enough passengers, and fill their planes, airlines need to have attractive fares especially for the long-distance international market. Often a round trip fare costs less than twice a one-way fare, and indeed, often less than a single one-way fare at the expense of generally having many restricted fare rules attached like being non-refundable. Many different displays are in use depending on the airline considered. A typical roundtrip display (110) is also shown in FIG. 1. With this second kind of display, irrespective of differences that inevitably exist between what is displayed on the Web sites of different travel service providers, the customer is bound to perform a choice from a list of options built by the travel site in response to the particular request he/she has issued. Request includes information such as the leaving and returning dates, the destination, and so on. Then, customer must scroll the list of proposed returned options to select the one he/she prefers. Clearly, outbound and inbound parts are not combinable options as with the one-way display.
It is thus the object of the invention to provide a display that retains, for the customers, the freedom of choice of the one-way display while allowing the use of roundtrip fares. The invention discloses a user interface and a method that enables such a display to be operated from a travel service provider Web site.
Further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to the ones skilled in the art upon examination of the following description in reference to the accompanying drawings. It is intended that any additional advantages be incorporated herein.